What to Keep in Mind when Choosing a Domain Name for your Online Store

You’re about to launch your ecommerce store and it’s an exciting time for your business! When choosing the right domain name for your online shop, there are a few key things to consider to ensure your company has the best edge in attracting your target audience. Most business owners know to own one domain name: their brand name. While that is the best domain name to own, you have probably wondered if are there other ways to help your company get discovered online. Hover gives you the tips to see success in search and attract your target audience below.

First off – is your company name available as a domain name?

As you’ve likely already selected your company name (and if you haven’t…what are you waiting for!?), it’s good to check if that domain name is available. Unless you’ve invented a new word, you’ll likely face the struggle that many do, where your first choice domain or .COM domain name is taken. In the scenario where your ideal company name domain is not taken, definitely snatch it up! The last thing you’d want to do is have a competitor owning your brand’s domain name in the future. Further, company names are often fairly memorable and your customers will be sure to search your business’s name in hopes of landing on your website. If you don’t own that domain name, you are losing potential customers.

For the next steps – what do you sell?

As a brand looking to launch an ecommerce store, you aim for your products to receive the most competitive exposure possible. You need to measure up in your space in order for your products to populate under your target market’s search queries. If you sell handmade haute couture yoga pants, for example, it’s a great idea that your domain name is reflective of not only your brand, but the specific products that you sell. While there is no harm owning a .COM or your country’s domain extension (such as .CA for Canadian brands), owning a .YOGA or .FASHION informs those entering search queries exactly what your brand is about. You don’t need to build a separate website or landing page around these domains – have them simply redirect to your main website or to a social media channel.

These unique domain names can also act as an extension of your brand. If your brand name is Stretches Hot Yoga, then grabbing STRETCHESHOT.yoga is the perfect solution. If you already own the stretcheshotyoga.COM, you can always forward the .YOGA domain to your .COM website.

It’s important that your new company can begin to rank on search engine results pages (SERPs). Achieving success in organic SEO is a slow process, and relies on a combination of off-page techniques, properly targeted content, complete meta data, and more – but your domain is a good place to start. As a fashionable athletic wear company selling online, you can get a .SHOP domain name, or even a .FASHION, .YOGA, .FIT, or .FITNESS. These extensions help your target market understand what to expect of your website and know that your brand aligns with their search queries. Those who land are more likely to be high quality traffic that lingers on the page and navigates throughout the website if they know what to expect of your website and are correct in their expectations. This also prevents you from having a very long domain name, such as owning brandfashionyogafitness.com. You can instead own brand.shop, brand.yoga, brand.fitness or your brand name with any extension.

You have unique product names – use them for your domain!

A final thing to remember is that not everyone is going to keep your company name front of mind. Many people may remember your ad on Instagram, for example, and will think of the featured product in the image. If you can secure a domain surrounding your featured products or product names, especially if they are unique or invented words, it’s a great way to help increase brand association and protect your brand. You can use these domains to create unique landing pages to promote your best-selling or most popular products, too, in order to drive sales.

There are a lot of options when you’re searching for domain names that will help you see success for your online store. The key takeaway is to think like your audience – how are they searching for you, what are they going to remember of you, and what about your brand is important to them. If you can answer these questions, you will be able to find the perfect domain name or domain names to improve memorability of your brand and attract your potential audience.